Tag Archives: gold fish as pets

April 19, 2020 · 4:19 pm

Pooping Contest

Even though the fish grumbled, my husband helped me clean the aquarium today. I asked for help because I have now changed to a filter for a 10-gallon tank even though ours is a 5-gallon.  The part that hangs the filter system on the tank didn’t want to go on, so I enlisted his expertise.

I only have the two fish you see here. The whiter one has grown to be about two times as large as he was when I bought him about a year or so ago now. The gold one has increased in size at least three, and maybe four times. He’s a monster now.

I didn’t realize when I bought them that gold fish have a well-earned reputation for pooping. I realize that fish need to, but these two wrote the book on it! I guess it’s like being on lockdown. They have nowhere to GO. Not much to DO. No HOBBIES to get involved in. Still, one would think they could devise games to play in there, rather than having pooping contests.

I am cleaning their tank once a week in order to keep the water sparkling clean most of the time. It gets a bit cloudy, and then, suddenly, the water is GREEN and desperately needs to be changed. I have read lots of articles on the subject. I’m following all the suggestions. It’s a good thing that I find these two fish NICE. I enjoy having the aquarium and love the look of it when it’s nice and squeaky clean.

Maybe one day they will listen to my not-so-subtle suggestions and get with the program…

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Tagged as , , ,

June 20, 2019 · 4:21 pm

Flourishing Fish

I don’t know when I bought these four gold fish. I had a large bowl I was using as a tank. It quickly became apparent that these fish were actually doing well and that they needed more room. We bought a 5 gallon aquarium, with filter, oxygenator, etc.

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say they are now at least 3 times the size they were when I bought them.  I usually end up cleaning out the aquarium once a month, depending on how their water is looking. I scrub everything, vacuum the stones, put in new, treated water, change the decorations, hook everything back up and then carefully add the fish again.

The only ‘trick’ they do is that when they see me coming and hope I’m going to feed them, they all bunch into the same corner and wiggle their little bodies, looking right at me. For some unknown reason, this melts my heart.

They never say anything about the change in decor. I do see them checking things out each time I change things, so I hope this keeps them from getting bored.

Since I talk to my plants, I also talk to the fish. We don’t have any deep discussions about the state of the world or anything. I basically make noises, sounding like an idiot, while they wriggle and blow bubbles at me.

Works for us!

14 Comments

Filed under Family

Tagged as ,

April 9, 2019 · 9:22 am

Happy Fish?

We used to have a 40-gallon aquarium. It, and the metal support table on which it sat, covered one whole side of our dining area. I loved it, but we decided it was ‘too much work’ at some point and sold it.

Now I laugh, because gold fish bowls or tanks take a LOT more work than our aquarium ever did, and we had lots of fish then in comparison. Now we have only  4 gold fish in a 5-gallon aquarium. They seem to delight in making their water cloudy, doing it with alarming rapidity.

If they weren’t so SWEET I wouldn’t put up with it. They don’t do tricks, smile, be affectionate, or anything else you hope pets will do, but they DO pile up in the corner at feeding time – mornings and evenings – wriggling their little bodies and opening and closing their mouths with excitement when they see I’m there. That’s enough to make all this worth it.

I don’t know if they care about their surroundings, but each time I clean the aquarium, completely changing the water, vacuuming the gravel, etc., I also change the decorations.

Although they don’t SAY anything, they are at least 3 times the size they were when I first bought them and brought them home…

Leave a comment

Filed under Amazing Animals, Family

Tagged as , ,